Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Congress will act early next year to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law but delay the changes as Republicans try to come up with an alternative. […] Speaking in Louisville, McConnell cautioned that the law’s critics “can’t just snap your fingers and go from where we are today to where we’re headed.” He said a replacement to the health care law will be done in a “phased-in way.” …

Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s biggest mistake since the election was his claiming without any evidence that millions of votes were illegally cast on Election Day. "The president of the United States can't randomly tweet without having somebody check it out," Gingrich, a vice chair on Trump's transition team, told USA Today’s Susan Page during an appearance on the Capital Download video series. “I mean it just— It makes you wonder about whatever else he's doing. It undermines much more than a single tweet." On Sunday, Trump falsely (sic) claimed that “millions” of people voted illegally, preventing...

President-elect Trump will hold a second meeting with Mitt Romney this week to discuss the position of secretary of state, much to the chagrin of some in his circle who have said Romney is undeserving of the top diplomatic post.

COLUMBIA -- President-elect Donald Trump is picking South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to become his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, The Post and Courier has learned. The move, expected Wednesday, continues the steep political rise of the daughter of Indian immigrants that started six years ago when the Bamberg native was elected as South Carolina’s first female and minority governor. The planned nomination to the cabinet-level post, confirmed by multiple sources with knowledge of the decision, is likely to raise questions about Haley’s qualifications for a major foreign policy role since she has little diplomatic experience as state lawmaker...

Washington (CNN)A Republican hawk, John McCain, is warning a Republican President-elect, Donald Trump, about growing too close to Vladimir Putin before Trump's presidency even begins. McCain on Tuesday did not mention Trump's name in a statement but left no question about his opinion on a president acting too chummy with the Russian leader. Trump has been criticized by Republicans at times for his praise of Putin and believes that the US and Russia can work strategically together to advance an international agenda. McCain said President Barack Obama's attempts to cool tensions between the US and Russia had enabled the nation...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he still has differences with President-elect Donald Trump, but is prepared to work with him and be a check on him when necessary. "There will be areas where I don't agree, and my job then will be to represent a coequal branch of government and speak my mind," Graham told reporters in the Senate Tuesday. In the wide-ranging session Tuesday afternoon, Graham – a vocal opponent of Trump's tone and positions on immigration and foreign policy – said that he believes Trump is not an ideologue and instead will still be evolving on public policy...

Former President George W. Bush reflected on the presidential election Tuesday and cautioned against anger influencing political policy, CNN reported. Speaking in Dallas, Bush acknowledged that economic anxiety and voters who were "sick and tired of the status quo" pushed President-elect Donald Trump to victory — though Bush did not mention Trump by name. "I understand anger, and some people may have been angry when I was president," Bush said. "But anger shouldn't drive policy. What needs to drive policy is what's best for the people who are angry."

CHEYENNE – With only about two months until the next Congress convenes, Republican Rep.-elect Liz Cheney is already starting her transition to the U.S. House of Representatives. Formal orientation for freshman lawmakers begins next week, and Cheney will also be working with outgoing Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, as part of the changeover.

As one of his biggest supporters during the presidential election campaign, Michael Savage vowed to hold Donald Trump’s feet to the fire should he win, ensuring that the real-estate billionaire fulfills his promise to reform Washington. Less than a week after Trump’s victory, the nationally syndicated talk-radio host is keeping his word, criticizing the appointment of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff. “We’ve gone from RINOs to Rinso in one election,” Savage told WND, dubbing Priebus with the name of the iconic laundry soap. Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2016/11/savage-warns-trump-on-priebus-looks-like-jeb-bush-won/#i5RqlWPcEPJbgmcR.99

(CNN)House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday despite Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric, lawmakers are not prepared to form a deportation force to round-up and deport undocumented immigrants. "We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump's not planning on that," Ryan told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "I think we should put people's minds at ease: That is not what our focus is. That is not what we're focused on. We're focused on securing the border. We think that's first and foremost, before we get into any other immigration issue, we've got to know who's coming...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed Sunday that his Republican-led chamber will indeed repeal and replace ObamaCare, after Donald Trump’s remarks that he would consider keeping certain parts of the health care law following his presidential election win. “We will repeal and replace ObamaCare,” McCarthy, a California Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It has to change.” McCarthy, the chamber's No. 2 Republican behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, spoke one day before Congress returns to Washington for a so-called lame duck session, which will include passing a budget to avoid a looming government shutdown and preparing for several of...

It’s no secret that Donald Trump is as much of a blank slate on policy as anyone who’s ever been elected president. Both supporters and opponents of the president-elect agree that Trump is still very malleable on many issues and has a lot to learn about both foreign and domestic policy. This is why it is critical for conservatives to win the ‘battle of personnel’ in the coming days. Failure to land conservative outsiders in key cabinet and advisory roles would be akin to failing to establish control of the beach head during the Normandy invasion. We can dream of...

Outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., is at the top of President-elect Trump's list for secretary of defense, according to a Washington Post report published Friday evening. Other candidates up for the Pentagon chief slot are retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph "Keith" Kellogg, former Defense Intelligence Agency director Gen. Mike Flynn and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. snip.... Sources said Ayotte's neoconservative background would help her serve as a liaison between the GOP establishment in Congress and Trump administration. She would also be the first woman to oversee the Defense Department.

..... Lindsey Graham – one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics within the Republican Party – congratulated the Republican candidate on his presidential victory early Wednesday, hours after he voted against Trump. In a statement, Graham says that after the election, “we now have a country to run,” and names several areas he hopes to work on with the president-elect, include “keeping trade free but fairer,” rebuilding the military, repealing President Obama’s health care law, and confirming new Supreme Court justices.

The Trump phenomenon was a thumb in the eye of liberal complacency. It was the first time in my memory that a Republican gave the same treatment back to the Democrats. That caused this new fretting over polarization. There was no polarization when only one side (the Dems) was the bully. No one spoke of polarization when the left demonized a decent man like Mitt Romney. But when you have a candidate like Trump hit back, now you have polarization. This should have been a gift for Republicans -- but it wasn't. Where Trump and his mouthpieces went wrong was...

Gov. Charlie Baker, the state's most prominent Republican, did not cast a vote for president of the United States for the first time in his life today. "This is the first time I haven't voted for president and I'm obviously disappointed about that," Baker said outside The First Church in Swampscott, where he was 40th in line to vote - his wife Lauren, 39th - at 7 a.m. in a 35-degree chill. Baker also passed on penning a write-in candidate. "But you know what? I have lots of friends who are voting for Hillary Clinton. I have lots of friends...

Well done, John Kasich … You can sleep well knowing that you helped a possible felon under FBI investigation win the election. Members of the ruling elite have a seemingly unlimited capacity to misunderstand populist movements. Like polar bears in an ice age, they benefit from the problems that are ruining the lives of others. Unlike the polar bears, they created the problems that are ruining the lives of others. Populism doesn’t come raining down on the Jeb Bushes and Hillary Clintons of the world because of random bad luck. Populism is always an equal and opposite reaction to actions...

Former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich confessed on Monday evening that he wrote in Arizona Sen. John McCain for president on his early voting ballot instead of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Chris Schrimpf, the governor's political spokesman, confirmed to Cleveland.com that the Ohio governor voted straight-ticket Republican on the rest of his ballot, but stood by his July promise not to vote for the billionaire businessman.

Are you aware of the 1982 Consent Decree between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)? If you’re not, don’t be alarmed, most others don’t know about it either. Even if you’re a political junkie, it’s unlikely that you’ve been aware of the Consent Decree and what it means to voters – particularly Republican voters. So you might say, I sometimes vote Republican, so what’s that mean to me? It means that many well-informed, politically active Republicans (like you, perhaps?) could have their votes cancelled out by democrat voter fraud and, thanks to the RNC; our...

If you think 2016 will stop being weird come November 8, please look at your calendars: This whole election process actually lasts almost an additional two months beyond then, finally ending (probably) when Congress counts the electoral votes in early January. But just because it’s been a weird year, that doesn’t mean it has to end badly. There’s reason to hope. Consider independent write-in candidate for president Evan McMullin. He has virtually no chance of winning the election on November 8, but he does have a shot at being chosen as our next president.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has never had much to say about Donald Trump. But lately, he has fallen completely silent. As he’s made the rounds in his home state of Kentucky this month, McConnell has either ducked reporters’ questions, or explicitly refused to address the topic he acknowledged was on everyone’s mind: His party’s presidential nominee. […] McConnell’s silence is especially notable in light of Trump’s recent complaints that the election is rigged and he might not ultimately accept the results. Despite a lifetime in public service, McConnell has offered no reaction, passing up the opportunity to defend the...

2016 has been a big year for protest politics -- not just in the United States, what with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump getting over 40 percent of primary votes, but also all over Europe and Latin America, where voters have been rejecting the advice of their nations' political, financial and media establishments. Two prime examples were in referendums. On June 23, 52 percent of British voters rejected the advice of Prime Minister David Cameron and other parties' leaders and chose to leave rather than remain in the European Union. On Oct. 2, 50.2 percent of voters in Colombia voted...

Former Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is hitting back against the claim that the election is “rigged” -- an allegation that GOP nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly made in recent days. When asked in an interview with “CBS This Morning” early Wednesday whether he believed Trump’s assertion of a cooked election was correct, Kasich replied with an emphatic “no.” “Look, to say that elections are rigged and all these votes are stolen -- that’s like saying we never landed on the moon, frankly,” said Kasich. “That’s how silly it is.” The Ohio governor further criticized Trump’s position...

For many viewers, this came as no surprise, but for many FOX conservative loyalists, this latest news would have come as a shock. FOX News host Shepard Smith joins other high-profile gay cable news anchors like CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon. A number of high-profile media critics including top-rated talk radio host Michael Savage, have recently raised the alarm that FOX News is undergoing a liberal facelift following the departure of its news head Roger Ailes over a number sexual harassment cases.

New Jersey’s low gas prices are about to get more expensive after Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Friday signed legislation raising the gas tax by 23 cents per gallon, from the 49th highest in the nation to the sixth, to pay for an expired transportation trust fund. The gas tax, though, is still lower than the gas tax in neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. The hike is set to go into effect Nov. 1. Christie also rescinded an order that shut down transportation projects in the state. He first issued the order when the transportation trust fund expired months ago....

John Kasich has a simple message for Republicans who are struggling with how to respond to the 2005 tape that leaked last week of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump boasting about using his celebrity status to grope women. "Lead by example," he told Business Insider in a Thursday interview. The Ohio governor and onetime 2016 presidential hopeful, who was the last Trump challenger to drop out of the GOP primary, released an extended response to the tape over the weekend. In that response, he said the tape was not "surprising to me or many others." "Many people were angry and...

"Paul Ryan Comes to Heel Behind Donald Trump Again, Begins Pushing Trump Campaign Narrative on Hillary Clinton’s Catholic Smears" Trump needs to mend the rift. Swallow his pride and keep the team together. After the elections you can settle the arguments. Show the American people you are bigger then those who betrayed you and that you don't hold grudges.

In a 2013 email published a few days ago by WikiLeaks, Hillary Clinton expressed views wildly at odds with those of the American citizenry: “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.” Most of Donald Trump’s Republican defectors are poised to help her achieve her open-borders dream. As Republican elites continue to defy Republican voters on the crucial issue of immigration, it’s not surprising that the Senate’s open-borders crowd is refusing to back the man who—largely because of his hawkish immigration position — was chosen by Republican voters to be their party’s nominee. While only...

Donald Trump unleashed the fury of his Twitter account on his GOP critics Tuesday, accusing them of being fair-weather backers and insisting that he's better off without their "shackles," and he can now run the kind of campaign he wants. At first glance, though, the new Mr. Trump looked a lot like the old Mr. Trump -- with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Sen. John McCain targeted... "Disloyal R's are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary," he said in another tweet. "They come at you from all sides. They don't know how to win -- I will teach them!"...

Yesterday, Paul Ryan announced he would stop defending Trump and told other GOP members to fend for themselves. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) response: "Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!" - 8:16 AM - 11 Oct 2016 "Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty." 9:05 AM - 11 Oct 2016 "It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America...

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan dealt a hammer blow to Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy Monday, telling Republican lawmakers that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump and would focus instead on defending the party’s majority in Congress. But in an illustration of Mr. Trump’s powerful grip on much of the party, Mr. Ryan faced angry blowback from conservative lawmakers supportive of Mr. Trump. After Mr. Ryan announced his decision in a conference call Monday morning, a stream of hard-liners came on the line to urge their colleagues not to give up on Mr. Trump, and complained that Mr. Ryan...

By Christine Todd Whitman Pundits and politicians — myself included — completely misjudged this election. I certainly did not think that Donald Trump had a serious shot of being the Republican nominee when he first entered the presidential race. When he got the nomination, few thought the polls would ever be this close. And far too many have failed to recognize that there is a difference between change and chaos. The latter is what we will get with a Trump presidency. At a time when the country is facing real issues and many are wondering if they have a future of...

JanicetheElder posted this yesterday, it bears repeating:Unfortunately rather than following Breitbart’s recommendations, RINOs have instead adopted one of the most annoying tactics of the Progressive Left: virtue signaling. Except in RINO-World it’s used to discredit one of their own rather than the enemy – a unique play that generally allows the other team to score while you are still posturing and preening.In case you don’t remember exactly how virtue signaling works here’s a good explanation from Acculturated: it is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favor for certain political ideas, cultural...

House Speaker Paul Ryan was shouted down by chants of “Trump” at his Fall Fest event Saturday in Wisconsin. Ryan, who kicked off the speech talking about the “elephant in the room,” said that Trump’s banter with Billy Bush before taping an Access Hollywood segment in 2005 was “a troubling situation.” The chants for “Trump” start at about the 6:40 mark in the video below. Ryan was joined onstage by Wisconsites Ron Johnson and Scott Walker after the “Trump” shouts began, at the end of Ryan’s speech. Some also shouted, “God bless Trump,” and “See ya, Paul! Jackass!”

A leading #NeverTrump radio host is pulling the plug on his Wisconsin show, citing age and retirement plans to explain his departure from the airwaves by end of the year. “This morning, I announced that I am stepping down from my daily radio show on WTMJ at the end of this year,” Charlie Sykes said on his website. I know that lot of people will assume that my decision has something to do with this current campaign and the rise of Trumpism. But, the reality (as my friends and family know) is that I made this decision a long time...

Daan Roosegaarde reached into the pocket of his suit jacket, pulled out a plastic bag filled with black powder, and waved it around. “This is Beijing smog,” Roosegaarde said, before gesturing to the seven-metre tall, gently humming metal tower we are stood next to in the Chinese capital’s art district, 798. “We collected it from the tower yesterday. Incredibly disgusting.” Dutch designer Roosegaarde’s smog souvenir may be disgusting, but it’s the byproduct of an invention that he has touted as a potential alleviator of China’s pollution problems. His “smog-free tower” sucks air, filters it with ion technology, with Roosegaarde having...

The campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton rolled out another 40 endorsements from prominent Republicans and independents Thursday, the latest play in a bid to lure voters across party lines in her race against Donald Trump. The list includes three former congressmen, a dozen former high-ranking members of Republican administrations — including a White House ethics lawyer, a director of the Situation Room and an undersecretary of transportation — as well as an array of Capitol Hill staffers, local elected officials and fundraisers for GOP candidates. The recruits were trumpeted in an afternoon conference call featuring John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman,...

The South Carolina Republican, who previously went on record to say he's not voting for Trump nor Clinton, has now put himself in a position to play pundit and he used his time onstage to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the two major party candidates. But first, as he started a Q&A with Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson, he told a joke. 'I have the sniffles and I'm not using cocaine. I promise you,' Graham said.

The Senate’s top Republican Thursday warned that legislation enacted over President Barack Obama’s veto to allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts may have “unintended ramifications” and that lawmakers should discuss fixes to the measure. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the White House was too slow to warn about the “potential consequences” of the measure. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly overrode Obama’s veto of the measure on Wednesday. McConnell said he told the president recently that the 9/11 victims bill “was an example of an issue that we should have talked about...

As a life NRA member, like many of you I was puzzled and dismayed by the news that the NRA had endorsed the Democrat candidate for Governor of Missouri. What but how could that be? This report from GotNews.com lays it out. The Republican candidate is Eric Greitens, a Navy SEAL! There must be more to the story and there is. GotNews.com has presented the whole picture of exactly who Greitens is; and it’s not very attractive for genuine American conservatives. Greitens is former Democrat, a globalist and a man who has strong connections to “the Clinton Foundation, George Soros,...

DrudgeReport top story: George H.W. Bush to vote for Hillary - POLITICO http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/exclusive-george-hw-bush-to-vote-for-hillary-228395 George H.W. Bush to vote for Hillary A Kennedy outs a Bush who favors a Clinton. By Darren Samuelsohn 09/19/16 11:20 PM EDT Updated 09/19/16 11:36 PM EDT Former President George H.W. Bush is bucking his party's presidential nominee and plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, according to a member of another famous political family, the Kennedys. Bush, 92, had intended to stay silent on the White House race between Clinton and Donald Trump, a sign in and of itself of his distaste for the...

Called Adam Kinzinger’s (Ill 16) DC office yesterday and asked, “What is my Congressman going to do to prevent Obama from ceding our Internet freedom to the UN by giving up US control of ICANN?” They claimed they did not know anything about this. Has anyone else had a similar experience with their “Representative”?

Okay you Never-Trumpers, I’ll concede that The Donald is sometimes less than articulate (in the community organizer/orator sense of the word), says some things that seem less than brilliant, can be a bit crude and has some fairly funky looking hair. Which leads some to conclude he isn’t “presidential.” However, I would expect you, then, to concede that electing the smartest guy (or gal) in the room with the sharpest crease in his/her trousers, whose primary qualifications entail being “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy (or gal)” won’t exactly work out all that well either.Too cool for...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says Donald Trump is turning into a typical politician with his recent comments on illegal immigration, saying Mr. Trump is correct to try to reach out to new constituencies but that it’s anyone’s guess what he might actually believe. “This is all a game,” Mr. Bush said Thursday in a radio interview with WABC’s Rita Cosby. “His views will change based on the feedback he gets from a crowd, or, you know, what he thinks he has to do.” Mr. Bush, who Mr. Trump repeatedly mocked as “low energy” during the GOP presidential primary contest,...

<p>Arizona Sen. John McCain turned 80 on Monday, just one day before he will face off against a Republican challenger in the state’s primary.</p>
<p>McCain is expected to win Tuesday's primary. A CNN/ORC poll released last week had him ahead of his challenger, Kelli Ward, 55%-29%.</p>

A new Republican proposal [by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (RINO, VA)] to resolve the long-running fight over taxing internet sales across state lines drew praise from Amazon.com Inc. and House Speaker Paul Ryan. “I am shocked Republicans would propose an internet sales tax,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) “This proposal would create a logistical nightmare for states like Oregon that don’t have or want sales taxes. I will continue to oppose any efforts to impose a national sales tax scheme on Oregonians.” Michael Needham, the chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America said, “the Republican-controlled Congress would be wise...